The New Museum celebrated its 35th anniversary last night with its spring gala at Cipriani Wall Street honoring sculptor Paul McCarthy. The event, which featured several of his installations and a performance by the Pimps of Joytime, drew a fashion- and art-world crowd that included Francisco Costa, Narciso Rodriguez, Cynthia Rowley, Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez, George Condo, Jeff Koons, and Chuck Close.

Honorary gala chair Chloë Sevigny is currently mulling her next collection for Opening Ceremony, which she expects to be pre-fall. “They wanted to do spring, but I don’t feel like I have enough ideas yet,” she told Vanity Fair. “I want it to be special every time.” The actress is happy that she isn’t committed to a typical fashion cycle of twice-yearly collections; she is basically able to roll out a collection whenever she wants to. “I have that freedom,” she said.

As for branching out from her partnership with Opening Ceremony, Sevigny said, “I’ve been asked a couple times to do small capsule collections for other brands, but if I’m going to sell out, I’m going to go big. So I’m kind of holding out.” Does she mean big, as in mass market? “Yeah. I mean something big,” she told us, laughing. Would she consider doing a diffusion line for someone like H&M? “Maybe, yeah. If there was enough money involved,” she said, laughing. “To be completely honest.”

Since gala honoree McCarthy is known for his rather unorthodox works, Sevigny told us about an unusual piece in her home, a red fluorescent pentagram by artist Hanna Liden. “It’s neon; when you turn it on, it’s like a bright red light. When you’re walking by the house, it almost looks like you’re walking by a brothel,” she said. “But I have a crucifix on the opposite wall, so it kind of balances it out.”

One of the more outré pieces in artist Marilyn Minter’s home is a dead tree carved as a little girl dancing. Minter commissioned the piece, using a dead tree in her back yard. “[The sculptor] spent a couple of months carving this little girl dancing on one foot, and the other foot is up. It’s just the bottom half of her, and then the rest of the tree trunk comes out,” she said. Minter’s husband, Bill Miller, noted another of the couple’s favorite pieces: “I’m really fond of the toilet seat that lowers automatically,” he said. “Yeah, it’s true. We love it,” Minter added. “It takes care of that fundamental male-female thing of lifting and dropping it,” Miller explained. Ah, now we get it. The two admit they are enamored of modern technology. “We’re very techie,” Minter said, adding that they have all the latest gadgets. “Well, we get them, but we don’t know how to use any of them,” Miller admitted. “We haven’t figured out how to get the Netflix.”

Also going low-tech is Amanda Brooks, who recently resigned her position as Barneys’ fashion director. “I’m moving to a farm,” Brooks said of her immediate plans. The farm, in England, belongs to her husband’s family and has horses, chickens, sheep, donkeys, and pigs. Brooks was vague on whether she will be working with the livestock; “I’m not really sure yet. We’ll see,” she said. As for other, non-farm-related career plans, Brooks merely said, “I have some ambitions. We’ll see.” These “ambitions,” she says, do involve fashion.